day two: huaraz

little village of san pedro we walked through

stunning views of the Andes

a bit higher up

lake willkacocha

Bliss. Absolute bliss. We had such a gorgeous day hiking in the mountains. We left Huarez this morning about 10am and caught a collectivo (basically a van that runs like a bus for locals) about 20min outside of town.

We were dropped off on a dirt track, crossed a river and spent the next four hours hiking up a pretty big hill to Lake Willkacocha. The hike was about 6k up but as we are now at 3.500 m was a bit harder than I had anticipated...there was a lot of huffing and puffing going on. The views however, were totally worth it.

Along the way we picked up three dogs, who stayed by our side both up and down the mountain. And the locals we ran into were so lovely, always happy to have a chat, shout hello or point us in the right direction.

Our plan tomorrow is to do a longer, higher trek, up to 4,300m before catching the night bus back to Trujillo. I am happily exhausted and can not wait.

day one: huaraz

selling fruit on the street

grains and a glimpse of the traditional dress

delicious street food

chicken shop

at the meat market

We made it to Huaraz! And of my goodness, it is amazing. This little mountain town has somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 people and is nesteled in a small valley within the Peruvian Andes. After an uneventful bus ride, we rocked up about 5am and grabbed a few hours kip before spending our fist day exploring the city.

The first thing I noticed was all the colour. Loads of women still wear the traditional Peruvian dress, which here consists of a dark skirt with a peak of lace showing beneath the hem, a brightly colored cardigan sweater and a large top hat!

Our hostel is literally across the street from the market and right outside our window are chicken and meat shops as well as little old ladies holding bags of live chicken and guinea pig ready to sell.

We decided to brave a bit of street food for lunch and as expected, it was delicious. We ditched the bravery for dinner and headed to an English owned mountain style lodge for our first non Peruvian food since our arrival. Some might consider it a copout, but after two weeks, it was worth it.

Our plan is to spend the next two days treking in the mountains, can´t wait. The air here is crisp and clear. Whoop!

end of week two

closing the mold

testing the pipes before pouring the foam into the mold

mixing the chemicals that make the foam, the reaction happens in seconds

finished blade

We have had a rough week in the workshop. We were supposed to finish at least one complete turbine, ready for our trip next week. Due to a number of issues, it just didn´t happen.

We did manage however to successfully make a turbine blade(!) as well as complete the two plates that generate the electricity; a metal plate topped with eight magnents set in resin and a resin mold filled with six hand turned copper coils.

To make the most of our unsuccessful week and celebrate what we did manage to complete, we decided to take the weekend off and head south into the mountain town of Huaraz. It´s a seven hour night bus and we are leaving tonight! We will have a long weekend in Huaraz, before taking a night bus back to Trujillo on Monday.

I am super excited for this trip. It will be nice to get away from Trujillo and finally see a little bit more of Peru. Updates to follow!

building a turbine

resin poured and setting

danger! laying the exceptionally strong magnents. there was blood.

gas masks necessary

hand turned copper coils

testing a blade

We have had a slight change of plan. Instead of building and installing one turbine, our group gets to go on a week long tour of northern Peru, performing maintenance on three turbines (in addition to installing our own). Yay!

Whilst it is super exciting to know that we see so many turbines in action, this means we have to bust our butts  in the workshop this week, finishing our turbine before we head off.

There are a number of different parts needed to make the turbine and today we focused on the core. There are two plates that make up the center core of the blade, a metal plate filled with resin and set with eight super strong magnents, and a second plate, filled with six copper coils, the ends of which are soldered together and then the entire plate is also set in resin.

It took us about a day to complete these two simple pieces, most of the work done by hand. The two pieces are arguably the most important part of the turbine, as it is the copper coils passing over the magnets (when the blade spins) that create the electric current. Who discovered that passing a copper coil over a magnet creates an electric charge is beyond me. But it is amazing to see how much science is involved in making this work. Working here has really made me realise how little I know about pretty much anything that has to do with electronics, but it is awesome to learn!

maintenance in chuquitoy

putting up the scaffolding

getting higher

almost at the top

a well deserved lunch break

done! the windaid crew

We spent Friday at Chuquitoy, fixing the second turbine that had fallen askew due to wind. Today, we came on site much better prepared! We brought our own scaffloding, back up power for our tools and had prepped a steel pole with holes drilled into it already (massive time saver).

Thanks to our preperation, we were able to get the scaffolding up, get the turbine down, swap the steel poles, drill into the wooden post and put the whole thing back together again in just about four hours. Massive improvement on yesterday!

It is hard to believe it has only been a week since I landed in Peru. We have already fixed two turbines, vistited a third and spent three days in the workshop building pieces for the turbine we will install in a few weeks time. Looking forward to the weekend and exploring a bit more of Peru!

maintenance in cantera

taking down the blade

thinking if a ladder inside a dump truck is really the best way up

yup, it is the best way up

project complete

The wind turbines we build for WindAid are super simple is structure and as durable as we can make them. The turbines are installed in pretty inhosptable places, battered by wind, dust and goodness knows what else.

Luckily for us, the later half of this week, we got to head out to two sites and perform maintenance on two turbines installed a few years ago. Whilst both were still working, it seemed the wind has pushed them off center, decreasing the amount of energy they are producing.

On Thursday, we drove an hour outside of Trujillo to the desert town of Cantera to try and fix the first turbine. We hit our first challenge almost immediately - to access the turbine, we were supposed to have access to a large CAT tractor that would lift us into the air - as the tractor was not working, we improvised, using a wooden ladder placed inside a dump truck (for height) parked next to our turbine!

Once up to the turbine, our plan was to drill two holes into the steel pole and through the wooden post, through which we could pin the turbine in place using steel screws. Unfortunately however, no one had really thought through the fact that once the turbine stopped running, we had a limited amount of power to run the power tools needed to drill the holes! Problem solving skills at the ready, we managed to high jack electricity from an old truck battery.

I suppose it should have been expected, but due to our own lack of planning, a few surprise challenges and the general pace of work in Peru, what should have taken a morning to fix ended up taking close to seven hours. But at the end of the day, this little house on the outskirts of town had their power back thanks to us and thanks to the wind.

workshop

Back row: Lucas, James, Pit
Front row: Tina, Geancarlo, Isoline, me, Hardy

 

 

 

We spend our days in the WindAid workshop, building the numerous components needed to create a wind turbine. Our group of volunteers are a motley crew, seven random strangers thrown together for this crazy experience.

 

Pit is an electrical engineer by trade and has just completed his PhD at Imperial College. He is an Iron man triathlete who decided to cycle to Trujillo from Huaraz. In what can only be described as an insane adventure, he covered 650km in a week, cycling by himself over the Cordillera. Nuts! James is our ginger Scotsman, who has also just finished his PhD in nuclear engineering. Isoline is a chemical engineer and like me, has also just completed an MSc at UCL. At only 22(!) is the baby of the group. Lucas is our internally conflicted friend; half German and half Greek, he has an undergrad in economics a first MA in Environmental Management and is now working on completing his second MSc which focuses on wind energy. We have Tina, a Canadian flight attendant with an interest in renewable energy. And finally, Hardy who is on a delayed gap year having just completed two years of service in Singapore's army, before studing aeronautics in the Netherlands.

 

The work is super varied, as almost all parts of the wind turbine are made by hand. We mix monomers and polymers together to create a foam core blades, which we sand by hand before coating in carbon fibre and finishing in resin. We weld pieces of metal together to create steel hoops that are used to anchor the turbines. We create copper coils, set them in a resin wheel, which when passed over strong magnets, generate the electrical current needed to create electricity. And that's just in our first few days!

 

Whilst it is all a bit overwhelming (especially given the fact that I am surrounded by chemical, mechanical and electrical engineers), I am learning a lot every day and hope that by the end of my month will be able to accurately describe the process that allows wind to make energy. Wish me luck!

i have arrived

 

 

After traveling for 17 hours, I finally made it to Peru! Landing at Jorge Chavez airport about 11pm, I was struck by the utter chaos around me. Hundreds of people were queuing for immigration, after which there were swarms of people picking through luggage in baggage claim. It took more than two hours, but I evenutally made out of the airport, into a taxi and arrived at my hostel.

 

My arrival all seemed far too easy, so I was not wholey unsurprised when the next morning, I turned up at the airport to find my flight to Trujillo had been cancelled. Unfortunately, the next available flight was a full 10 hours later...leaving me with an quite a bit of time to kill!

 

Not knowing what to expect, you can imagine my surprise when Taca Airlines offered to set up with a VIP transfer service to a lush hotel in Miraflores, an upscale neighboorhood in Lima, along with a free hotel room, lunch and shuttle service back to the airport for my new flight.

 

I ended up having a lovely day exploring Miraflores before finally making it to Trujillo. All in all, not a bad start to my Peruvian adventure.

 

Peru, so far, I am impressed.

peru

Howdy friends,

It has been such a long time since I updated my blog. Apologies for the absence, it has been quite a transformative year!

13 months ago, I decided to leave my job in telecommunications and persue a new direction in life. I spent the last year completing an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London, specialising in Environmental Analysis and Assessment. During my course, I was lucky enough to intern at two amazing organizations; CDP an independent not for profit which 'works with market forces to motivate companies to disclose their impacts on the environment and natural resources and take action to reduce them,' and SustainAbility, a strategy consultancy/think tank that 'helps companies to create value through the development of innovative solutions to environmental, social and governance challenges.'

Before going back to work in January of 2014, I decided to finish off my year doing a volunteer project in Peru. I will be heading to Trujillo, in northern Peru for four weeks to work with WindAid, an organization that provides wind turbines to communities in need of electricity.

I will be keeping a journal of my travels here...subtle delights has gone traveling to Peru!

Hope you enjoy.

x
Morgan